Linux From Scratch - Version 6.4

Chapter 2. Preparing a New Partition

2.3. Creating a File System on the
Partition

Now that a blank partition has been set up, the file system can be
created. The most widely-used system in the Linux world is the second
extended file system (ext2), but with
newer high-capacity hard disks, journaling file systems are becoming
increasingly popular. The third extended filesystem (ext3) is a widely used enhancement to
ext2, which adds journalling
capabilities and is compatible with the E2fsprogs utilities. We will
create an ext3 file system.
Instructions for creating other file systems can be found at
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/postlfs/filesystems.html.

To create an ext3 file system on the
LFS partition, run the following:

mke2fs -jv /dev/<xxx>

Replace <xxx> with
the name of the LFS partition (hda5 in
our previous example).

Note

Some host distributions use custom features in their filesystem
creation tools (E2fsprogs). This can cause problems when booting
into your new LFS in Chapter 9, as those features will not be
supported by the LFS-installed E2fsprogs; you will get an error
similar to “unsupported filesystem
features, upgrade your e2fsprogs”. To check if your
host system uses custom enhancements, run the following command:

debugfs -R feature /dev/<xxx>

If the output contains features other than has_journal, ext_attr,
resize_inode, dir_index, filetype,
sparse_super, large_file or needs_recovery, then your host system may have
custom enhancements. In that case, to avoid later problems, you
should compile the stock E2fsprogs package and use the resulting
binaries to re-create the filesystem on your LFS partition: